1. Milady’s Standard Cosmetology
On the Job
Milady’s Standard Cosmetology

2. “Someone has defined genius as intensity of purpose: the ability to do, the patience to wait… Put these together and you have genius and you have achievement”
Leo J. Muir

3. Objectives
Describe the qualities that help a new employee succeed in a service profession
List the habits of a good salon team player
Explain the function of a job description
Describe 3 different ways in which salon professionals are compensated

4. Objectives Create a personal budget
List the principles of selling products and services in the salon
List the most effective ways to build a client base
LEARNING MOTIVATION (WHY?)
Close your eyes and take a mental trip with me back to that special day in your training when you graduated from the basics class and advanced to the clinic floor. What did you feel? What anxiety or excitement did you experience based on the fact that you would now be working on actual live clients as opposed to mannequins. Were you concerned that you hadn’t sufficiently mastered the training you had received so far to handle the next step? OR were you anxious to show off your newly learned skills and establish yourself as a professional in training who would be in demand by the school’s clientele?
Well, you are about to experience many of the same feelings and emotions that you experienced back then. But now, you are not just advancing in your basic course of training; you are advancing into the real world of work. You are about to go from being a professional in training to being a professional. You are about to go from a safe, flexible learning environment to an every-man-for-himself work environment.
Probably the most important thing to remember as you make this school-to-work transition is that you have not just finished your education. Quite the contrary, your education has just begun. The sooner you acknowledge and accept the fact that learning is life-long, the sooner you will make progress in your journey toward achieving career success.

5. The School Environment
School is a forgiving environment
Mistakes can be corrected
Schedules can be adapted
MOVING FROM SCHOOL TO WORK ACTIVITY: Divide class into small groups of three to five students. Have them brainstorm about the changes they expect to experience as they move from the school environment to the work environment. Ask for a volunteer scribe to come to the front and record the group’s ideas on the board or a flip chart. Remember to reward the scribe with a token of appreciation.
NOTE: Some examples the students may come up with include not having an instructor around to guide them; taking home a paycheck rather than just tips; not having to get a grade on their services; having different scheduling procedures; being tardy may not be as forgivable; and so forth. Make sure you are prepared to discuss what all the ramifications are as a result of these changes.
THE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT: School is a forgiving environment. You get to do procedures over and over again until you perfect them. You make mistakes, they are accepted, and you get to correct them. You are even given some leeway in juggling your personal life and schedules. When you graduate and obtain your license, that all changes.

6. Points for Client Service
Put others first
Be true to your word
Be punctual
Be grateful
Be a problem solver
OUT IN THE REAL WORLD: Don’t expect to get the highest paid position doing only what you like to do best when you first graduate. That’s not reality. The bad news is you may start at the bottom as an assistant and work your way up. The good news is you will be learning throughout the journey.
THRIVING IN A SERVICE PROFESSION: There will be cranky or difficult clients, but for the most part, the people you service will appreciate the work you do for them.
POINTS FOR CLIENT SERVICE
Put others first. Sometimes you will need to put the needs of the salon and your clients ahead of your own feelings or desires.
Be true to your word. Choose your words carefully and keep them honest. Become known as someone who can be counted on.
Be punctual. Scheduling is central to the salon business. Being punctual is respectful of your manager, your coworkers and your clients.
Be grateful. Don’t ever forget that it is an honor to have a job that will provide for you and your family, so be grateful. If you become unhappy on the job, move on; don’t gripe or complain. Be a problem-solver. Learn to recognize problems quickly and develop your critical thinking skills to be able to offer reasonable solutions.

7. Points for Client Service
Be respectful
Be a life-long learner
Be respectful. Even if you do not like or agree with your manager, you must respect the position. If you cannot live with the salon rules, it may be time to move to another venue.
Be a life-long learner. We’ve talked about this. Thinking you know it all when you graduate cosmetology school is naive, immature, and extremely limiting. Learning can take your career in all kinds of new and exciting directions.

8. Salon Teamwork Strive to help Pitch in Share your knowledge
Remain positive
SALON TEAMWORK: Practice and perfect your people skills and become a good team player. It can be done by following these guidelines.
Strive to help. Be concerned with the success of your coworkers; stay late or come in early to help them.
Pitch in. Be willing to help with whatever needs to be done, whether it’s folding towels or answering the phone and making appointments.
Share your knowledge. This will earn you respect from your coworkers.
Remain positive. Avoid temptations for negativity; don’t succumb to maliciousness and gossip.

9. Salon Teamwork Become a relationship builder
Be willing to resolve conflicts
Be willing to subordinate
Be sincerely loyal
Become a relationship builder. This does not mean you have to be everyone’s best friend.
Be willing to resolve conflicts. Conflict and tension are bad for everyone, but conflict is a natural part of life. Therefore, we need to learn to resolve conflict and strive for “win-win” results.
Be willing to subordinate. No one starts at the top. When you start at the bottom of the totem pole, so to speak, you will be subordinate to someone above you. Accept the position graciously.
Be sincerely loyal. Loyalty is vital to the salon operation.
ACTIVITY: Ask for a volunteer to read the poem entitled “Loyalty.” It is LP 31.0, H Give it out to all the students and suggest they frame it and hang it above their station in the salon where they work.
Acknowledge that the more successful the entire salon is, the more successful you will be.

10. Job Description Read it carefully Make sure you understand it
Ask necessary questions
JOB DESCRIPTION: This is a document that outlines all the duties and responsibilities of your particular position in the salon.
Read it carefully.
Make sure you understand it.
Ask necessary questions. Remember, when you accept the position, you are agreeing to perform and live up to all the requirements stated in the job description.
ACTIVITY: Refer students to Figure 31-4 which is a sample job description. Review the key points of the form and discuss it, opening with all the students. You may want to ask individual students for feedback on individual requirements listed.

11. Job Description Example

12. Compensation Methods Salary Commission Salary plus commission Tips
Flat rate
Hourly rate
Commission
25% to 60%
Salary plus commission
Basic pay
Commissions on services and retail
Tips
COMPENSATION METHODS: There are four standard methods of compensation that you are likely to encounter.
Salary. This may be the best way to start out as it guarantees a certain income while you are building a business. It will likely be minimum wage for a new stylist. Salaries can be paid as an hourly wage or as a flat rate.
Flat rate. This means you are paid the same rate regardless of the number of hours worked.
Hourly rate. This means you will be paid a specific dollar amount for every hour you worked.
Commission. This means you will earn a percentage of the money you generate as a result of the services you perform and the retail sales you conclude. Range is from 25% to 60%. The percentage generally depends on your length of time at the salon and your performance levels. It may take a year of building a business before you can earn a comfortable living based on a straight commission.
Salary plus commissions. This means you receive both a basic salary plus a commission of services and perhaps retail sales. This is common for those making the transition from junior-stylist to full-time stylist. It can be used to motivate stylists to perform more services and increase ticket averages. In other words, increase productivity.
Tips. Tips are customary in the beauty industry, but will be allowed based on the salon’s tipping policy. The usual amount is 15% of the total service ticket. Tips must be tracked and reported as income.

13. Employee Evaluations Employer gives formal evaluations
Ask for help informally
Find a role model
EMPLOYEE EVALUATION: Feedback is the best way to keep tabs on your progress and improve your performance. It is common to have your first evaluation about 90 days after employment and then annually thereafter.
Formal evaluations are given by employer.
Ask for help informally. This may be available from your manager or a senior stylist.
Find a role model. Watch the other stylists and find the ones whose performance and behavior you wish to mirror. Go to them for advice. Ask them questions. Explain your problems and ask for help. Everyone needs to feel needed, appreciated, and important so they will not mind your requests. But you must be prepared to listen to their advice and not argue your points.

14. Financial Planning Research and plan Be aware pf debts and expenses
Build a personal
budget and live
by it
MANAGING YOUR MONEY: You must research and plan for things like medical insurance, retirement accounts, savings accounts, and so forth. It’s a small price to pay for a financially secure future.
MEETING FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES: You must be totally aware of your debts and monthly expenses, and plan for them in advance. Then you will have to work to earn that much money and more for those personal and miscellaneous expenses that occur throughout the month.
PERSONAL BUDGET: This can be extremely simple or extremely complex. You choose based on your own needs and goals.
ACTIVITY: Refer students to Figure 31-6 and conduct a discussion about the monthly expenses most people have. It also includes school loan repayments, savings, and payments into an IRA (individual retirement account). Have students complete the activity found in the textbook.
They fill in the amounts that apply to their current living and financial situation. Have them compare their income to their expenses. Discuss the results. Remember this, developing and sticking to a budget is a good practice to follow faithfully for the rest of your life.

15. Give Yourself a Raise Spend less Increase revenue Combination of both
GIVING YOURSELF A RAISE: There are two simple ways of doing this: spending less, making more, or both.
Spending less. Spending less increases the amount of money left over at the end of the month to go into retirement or savings accounts. This is just like getting a raise.
Increasing service prices or quantities. Once you have a loyal client base, you may increase your prices occasionally (no more frequently than every year or 2) as long as the amount is reasonable. Certainly, in a commission salary structure, however, you can give yourself a raise simply by generating a greater clientele or increasing the ticket average for the clientele you have.
Both. Spend less and make more equals a personal pay raise.

16. Seek Professional Advice
Research and interview financial planners
Keep credit card debt to a minimum
Learn to invest
Consider retirement options
Speak to bank officers
SEEK PROFESSIONAL ADVICE
Research and interview financial planners.
Learn about keeping credit card debt to a minimum.
Learn about investing your money.
Consider retirement options.
Speak to bank officers. Be an informed consumer and don’t just take one person’s advice without thinking it through and getting another opinion if necessary.

17. Sell, Sell, Sell Ticket upgrading Retailing DISCOVER THE SELLING YOU
TICKET UPGRADING OR UPSELLING SERVICES: This is the practice of recommending and selling additional services to clients.
RETAILING: The act of recommending and selling products to your clients for at-home hair, skin, and nail care.
ACTIVITY: Select two students to role play the parts of Ms. King and Judy in the dialogue that is found in the textbook. Give them a few minutes to review the dialogue and then have them role play the dialogue. Let them change the words to fit their own personality. At the conclusion of the role play activity, have the entire class discuss what they observed and how easy it is to upgrade tickets. Then have two additional students perform a similar role play.

18. Principles of Selling Know the benefits of products
Adapt to client’s personality and needs
Be self-confident
Ask questions
Don’t misrepresent services or products
Don’t underestimate client’s intelligence
Be relaxed and friendly
Recognize when to close the sale
PRINCIPLES OF SELLING: To be successful in sales, you need ambition, determination, and a good personality. Clients must like and trust you before they will purchase beauty services, cosmetics, or skin or nail care items. Every client who enters the salon is a potential purchaser.
Know the benefits of all services and products. Ethically, you will only sell those that will benefit the client.
Adapt your approach to client’s personality and needs.
The soft sell. This is where you inform the client about the product without stressing that they purchase it.
The hard sell. This approach focuses very emphatically on why the client should buy the product.
Be self-confident. Your confidence grows by knowing about the products you are selling and by believing they are as good as you say they are.
Ask questions. Generate interest and desire by asking questions that determine the client’s needs.
Never misrepresent your service or products for sale. Don’t make unrealistic claims that will lead to the client’s disappointment.
Don’t underestimate the client’s intelligence. She knows her own beauty regimen and particular needs.
Be relaxed and friendly. If possible, also demonstrate the use of the product.
Recognize the right psychological moment to close any sale. Once the client has agreed to buy, quit selling. Don’t oversell, except to praise the client for the purchase and to assure his/her satisfaction.

19. Psychology of Selling Determine client’s reason for purchasing
Want to look better
Want to feel better about self
Want to solve a problem
PSYCHOLOGY OF SELLING: You have to figure out the reason the client has for purchasing a product or service. They will vary widely.
Want to look better.
Want to feel better about self.
Want to solve a problem like spending less time detangling hair or having hair hold its style longer, etc.

20. Sales Techniques Ask clients what they use now
Place product in client’s hands
Advise clients of product benefits
Keep retail areas clean, well-lit, appealing
Inform clients of promotions and sales
Stress merits of using professional products
SALES CONVERSATION TECHNIQUES
Ask clients what products they are currently using.
Place products in client’s hands.
Advise clients on how the service or product will benefit them.
Keep retail areas clean, well-lit, and appealing.
Inform clients about promotions or sales.
Know the merits of using a professional product. You have to make this product more valuable to clients than those over-the-counter brands they can purchase at the discount stores.
ACTIVITY: Select two students and have them role play the scenarios found in the textbook on a product sale. Afterward, divide the class into small groups of three to five students and have them draft their own role play dialogue. Assign them different topics. For example, one group may be trying to sell a haircolor service while another group may be asked to sell a conditioner.

21. Sales Techniques

22. Five Points of Selling Establish rapport with client
Determine client’s needs
Recommend products/services
Emphasize benefits
Close sale
FIVE POINTS OF SELLING
Establish rapport with client.
Determine client’s needs.
Recommend products/services based on those needs.
Emphasize benefits.
Close the sale.

23. Building a Client Base Provide good service Be reliable Be respectful
Be positive
Be professional
BUILDING A CLIENT BASE: A client base consists of the clients you serve on a regular basis, who return to you again and again for your services. They are also known as “regular clients.” Building a client base depends mainly on your ability to build relationships. Let’s look at some points to keep in mind.
Provide good service. Don’t rush through a service and leave the client feeling that the quality was lacking.
Be reliable. Always be courteous, thoughtful, and professional. Be on time. Establish yourself as someone who can be trusted.
Be respectful. Being respectful means that you do not gossip or make fun of anyone or anything related to the salon (clients, coworkers, management, products, etc.). Negative energy brings everyone down, especially you.
Be positive. See the water glass half full rather than half empty. Look for the positive in every situation. No one enjoys being around a whiner, griper, or complainer.
Be professional. Do not cross the line from a stylist-client professional business relationship to a personal relationship. Remember, your job is to be the client’s beauty advisor, not a psychiatrist, marriage counselor, or buddy.

24. Building a Client Base Make business card referrals
Make local business referrals
Do public speaking
Rebook
Make business card referrals. Print regular business cards with room for a client to put her name on it. When client refers her friends, give 10% off next salon service or a complimentary service with next appointment for every referral s/he sends.
Make local business referrals. Work with other businesses near your salon in a card swap. You refer clients to them and they refer clients to you.
Do public speaking. Speak at local women’s groups, PTA, organizations for young men and women, and anywhere that puts you in front of people who are potential clients. Put together a short program (20 to 30 minutes) on grooming, for example, and you are set.
Rebook clients. Rebooking is the process of getting the client to schedule a future appointment before leaving the salon. This is accomplished through thoughtful dialogue and questioning. Talk about the condition of her hair, her grooming habits at home, and the benefits of special salon maintenance.
ACTIVITY: Discuss the three examples found in the textbook for rebooking. Then have students pair off and write their own dialogues for rebooking and have them role play the dialogue. Then have them exchange roles and complete them again. Discuss the merits of each different style.

25. Client Referrals

26. Summary and Review List 7 rules of conduct for success
We have established that there are a lot factors to consider when making the transition from the “student you” to the “professional you.” Accept the fact now that you will not enter the job market knowing everything you need to know. However, you do have a solid foundation of basic information and skills abilities that lay the groundwork for your quest of life-long learning. Success is not a matter of luck. It is something that we make happen for ourselves by doing the things we have talked about in today’s lesson. We need to be team players, have a positive attitude, keep a sense of commitment to our work and goals, and never stop learning.
Let’s review.
List seven rules of conduct that help a new employee succeed in a service profession like cosmetology.
ANSWER:
Put others first.
Be true to your word.
Be punctual.
Be grateful.
Be a problem-solver.
Be respectful.
Be a life-long learner.

27. Summary and Review List 6 habits of a good team player
Explain how a job description is used by the salon and employee
What are the 3 most common methods of salon compensation?
Explain why managing your personal finances is important to your success
List six habits of a good team player.
ANSWER:
Strive to help.
Pitch in.
Share your knowledge.
Remain positive.
Become a relationship builder.
Be willing to resolve conflicts.
Explain how a job description is used by the salon and by the employee.
ANSWER: It outlines all the duties and responsibilities of a particular position in a salon or spa.
What are the three most common methods of salon compensation?
ANSWER: Salary, commission, and salary plus commission.
Complete a personal budget and explain why managing your personal finances is important to your success.
ANSWER: [This response reflects the student’s own personal finances. Instructors will use their own judgment.]

28. Summary and Review
Name at least 6 principles of selling retail products in the salon
Name at least six principles of selling retail products in the salon.
ANSWER:
Be familiar with the merits and benefits of the various services and products you are trying to sell, and recommend only those that the client really needs.
Adapt your approach and technique to meet the needs and personality of each client.
Be self-confident when recommending products for sale.
Generate interest and desire in the customer by asking questions that determine need.
Never misrepresent your service or product.
Do not underestimate the client’s intelligence or her knowledge of her own beauty regimen or particular needs.
To sell a product or service, deliver your sales talk in a relaxed, friendly manner and, if possible, demonstrate use.
Recognize the right psychological moment to close any sale.

29. Summary and Review
List the most important characteristics for building a client base
Explain at least 3 different activities to expand your client base
List the important personal characteristics that help you build a client base.
ANSWER:
Provide good service.
Be reliable.
Be respectful.
Be positive.
Be professional.
Explain at least three different activities you can undertake to expand your client base.
Business card referrals
Local business referrals
Public speaking

30. one unit of study toward
Congratulations!
You’ve just completed
one unit of study toward
program completion!